10-Week Retrospective

Folks, you made it to the finish line! Congratulations on a successful summer!

Have a look at your very first venture canvas (Lean Canvas, Business Model Canvas, Mission Model Canvas or other variant), and think about how far you have come. In just 10 weeks, you have done primary and secondary market research, gathered insights from your potential customers, evolved your solution, and worked on creating a viable business model and go to market strategy to build a financially sustainable venture.

You struggled… you may have lost motivation at some point… some things did not work out as expected.  And yet you prevailed, and you learned. Great job all!

This is a great time for you to look back upon the 10 weeks of work you did on your venture, and reflect on the following:

• What did your team do well?
• What could your team have done better?
• How might your team do things differently?
• What have you learned about yourself and your team?
• What are your top priorities in the coming 12 months with emphasis on the next 3 months?

Get ready for the next chapter

The last three questions are particularly important. As you transition out of the summer, some of you are going full time, while others will be running your venture as a “side hustle”. If the latter is true, you will need to make decisions about how to continue working on your venture while balancing other demands on your time.

Now is a good time to rethink your goals and expectations for yourselves and your ventures, and make decisions about how you might proceed. If you have team members who are going back to school or starting a new job, you will need to work harder than ever on goal setting and prioritization. You will also need to recalibrate your expectations for the amount of progress you expect your team to make.

It will be uncomfortable – but that’s ok, as taking initiative to solve big problems is inherently uncomfortable. The Accelerator bootcamp workshops and weekly emails are archived on our website for your reference. You are welcome to continue to use our Self-Guided Learning Center and Knowledgebase to help you make progress. Lastly, Tufts students and alumni have access to our 1×1 office hours and any events and workshops that are open to alumni. We are here for you

If you decide to put your venture on hold for now because the time is not right – that’s ok. Entrepreneurship is about learning, acting on data and making decisions to persevere or pivot. You now know the process. What you have learned will be helpful to you wherever you will go.

That’s a wrap!

With that, it’s a wrap. Don’t be a stranger! Let us know when you achieve major milestones, so we can amplify your message. Come back to attend events at the Derby Entrepreneurship Center. Make time to talk to current students and inspire the next generation.

It’s been a pleasure working with you. Stay in touch!